Bullish sentiment persisted on the Lahore Stock Exchange almost throughout the week ending on January 31, 2009 and equities registered substantial gains across the board on account of institutional support, while retail investors also stayed on the buying course. The Lahore stocks significantly improved and the LSE-25 index moved up by 163.05 points to 1507.70, or 12.13 percent, against 1344.65 of previous week.
The volume amounted to 86.996 million shares, showing an improvement of over 106 percent compared with previous week's 42.162 million shares. From the banking sector, NIB Bank, MCB Bank, Habib Bank, National Bank, United Bank, Bank Alfalah and Bank of Punjab, and PPL and Pak Oilfields, OGDC and Attock Refinery from the oil sector kept the market in green zone while fertiliser sector shares like Fauji Fertiliser and Engro Chemical also supported the market.
Only on the first trading day, the market showed mixed trend and slid down by 43.71 points to 13000.94 points with trading of 10.544 million shares. The shares remained under pressure because of portfolio selling, while banks' selling also did not allow improvement in the sentiment.
Despite depressed sentiment, the market showed handsome recovery on account of fresh buying in PSO, Pak Oilfields, Fauji Fertiliser, Standard Chartered Bank, Faysal Bank, Sui Northern Gas, Pakistan PTA, and Lucky Cement.
On Tuesday, the market recovered previous day's losses and moved up by 63.25 points with considerable increase in volume of 16.353 million shares. Buying in select shares kept the market in green zone throughout the day.
The investors kept on picking dividend-oriented scrips in anticipation of good payouts in coming days.
On Wednesday, the market maintained rising move and showed fresh gain of 71.56 points with significant volume of 22.058 million shares. PPL, PSO, Pak Oilfields, Attock Refinery, OGDC Engro Chemical and Fauji Fertiliser provided support to the market.